No tax on wealth within the Labor Party, promises Rachel Reeves

Keir Starmer and Rachel Reeves are planning ahead of next year's election. Photo: Christopher Furlong/Getty

In Other Openings, Ms Reeves said Labor is preparing to overhaul planning laws to make it easier to build green infrastructure, and the Shadow Chancellor also vowed to do 'everything possible' to get green jobs and investment from firms already attracted by lucrative offers from countries. in France and the US, for example.

Labor is also being told that they should devise reforms or identify schemes that can be abandoned if they want to fund new projects, as «the money just won't be there».

p>

And it turns out that the Labor Party's annual business conference is about 75 percent full, with 200 delegates due and 150 on the waiting list, compared to last year's 130 attendees.

G Ms. Reeves also effectively retracts her remarks made in September 2021 when she said that «people who earn income through wealth should pay more.»

At the time, she singled out those «who earn their income through stocks and rental properties.»

The Shadow Chancellor told The Telegraph that the remarks were in the context of Rishi Sunak's ill-fated attempt to boost national insurance to raise an additional £12bn for the National Health and Social Security Service.

More about tax (Income tax, national tax) insurance )

She said, «I was talking about the government saying they needed to raise £12bn, and I said, 'Well, why do you always have to go to the workers and ask them to contribute more?' ?”

She added: “I don’t have any spending plans that would require us to raise £12 billion worth of money. So I don't need a wealth tax or anything… We don't have plans for a wealth tax.»

“We don't have any plans to raise taxes beyond what we've said. I don't see a way to prosperity through taxation. I want to develop the economy.» She added about the prospect of any form of wealth tax: “We won't do that. This is denial.»

A Labor Party source said the denial also refers to «any form of 'mansion tax' which has also been discussed by Labor in recent years.

Asked if the party backtracked on Sir Keir's 2020 pledge to raise the top income tax rate, Ms Reeves replied: “Yes. The tax burden is at its highest level in 60, maybe even 70 years… I see no other way to get more money for public services other than through taxation. This will happen through the growth of our way there. And that's why the policy we've laid out is about how we can encourage businesses to invest in the UK.»

Ms Reeves said she would move away from the 'minister knows best' approach to involve firms more closely in Whitehall decisions.

Rachel Reeves

Sources said the number of businesses flocking to the Labor Party conference showed that Ms Reeves was winning over firms.

She vowed to do 'everything possible' to attract investment and jobs to the UK from such firms as manufacturers of electric vehicles, amid a global race to host the «gigafactories» needed to produce batteries for zero-emission vehicles.

The new Sovereign Wealth Fund is investing £2bn to help «attract more investment from private sector into eight new gigafactories.

In terms of reforming planning laws, she added: “There are other things we can and should do, such as reforming our planning to make it easier to build gigafactories, or warehouses, or housing, or to connect power grids.”

She continued, “We need to loosen the planning rules a bit. If we take, for example, offshore wind energy, then between 10 and 13 years passes between the idea of ​​​​a project and the actual transfer of energy to the grid.